Blog: music, tuba,

Ralph Hepola, Springfield, MO

- New York City jazz journalist Marilyn Lester is a staff writer for The New York City Jazz Record – The City’s Only Homegrown Jazz Gazzette, which is distributed throughout New York City at hundreds of locations - from jazz clubs and record stores to instrument stores, schools and universities. It is read by over 23,000 people monthly. Ms. Lester was the cover story feature writer for the May 2023 New York City Jazz Record Tuba Issue. Also see marilynlester.com

published on All About Jazz, the world’s biggest jazz website

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“IMDb qualifier’s Milan Gold Awards is an international film festival. Milan is considered a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the fields of art, design, entertainment. Our mission is to promote films, and be another step up in the filmmakers' careers.”

“Live Screenings - IMDb Qualifying Festival - 400 Five-Star Reviews”

Ralph Hepola’s Original Thought has been officially selected at Milan Gold Awards in the Music Video Category and has received the Gold Award. Hepola co-authored Original Thought with keyboardist Kyle Aho. The piece is a tribute to the creative process itself.

Watch Music Video

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- Paris Film Awards is an International Monthly Film Festival with live screenings, which accepts short and feature films in the form of narrative (fiction), documentary (non-fiction), experimental or animated film, music videos, web/TV series (also pilot), feature scripts and short scripts.

Ralph Hepola’s Original Thought has been officially selected at Paris Film Awards in the Music Video Category and has received the Gold Award.

Hepola co-authored Original Thought with keyboardist Kyle Aho. The piece is a tribute to the creative process itself.

RalphHepola.com

I just returned from two weeks in Phoenix, Arizona, the fifth-largest metro area in the U.S., where I spent considerable time downtown at The Nash a.k.a. Jazz in Arizona Center, a non-profit organization. I attended four jam sessions and sat in with formidable musicians including saxophonist Clark Gibson; pianists Raul Yanez & Joel Goldenthal; bassists Chris Fenet, Ellis Green & Ted Sistrunk and drummer Adam Clark. I also attended excellent shows by The Power Trio including drummer Lewis Nash with special guest Bill Easley, as well as the Detroit group, Small Creatures.

From their website: “Recognized by Downbeat Magazine as one of the “Great Jazz Venues in the World,” The Nash does much more than preserve an original American art form. The music room and education facility create a community of jazz enthusiasts and musicians who build on the past to create a modern musical experience.”

https://thenash.org/

Highly Recommended

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- Christopher Knox, New York City Jazz Journalist and Contributing Writer to Hot House Jazz Guide in New York City, the longest running jazz magazine in the Tri-State area

published on All About Jazz, the world’s biggest jazz website

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- published on All About Jazz, the world’s biggest jazz website

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- published on Last Row Music, a website publishing news, auditions, events, and other info related to all styles of brass music

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- Roberto Regalado’s mural of tubaist Ralph Hepola at the Springfield Missouri Regional Arts Council “Pure Enjoyment” art exhibit, which opened during First Friday Art Walk

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In 2024, Cider Days on Historic Walnut Street returns for its 26th year. The event is well‑established and one of the best attended fall festivals in the region. The two-day festival will feature regional artists and crafters, live music on three performance stages, a free hands‑on children's area, incredible food and, of course, delicious apple cider!

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“Ralph Hepola, a contemporary jazz musician, won a grant from John Stites Jazz Awards of Michigan to fund a Midwest tour.”
- Northwestern University Magazine, Fall 2024

“Tubist Ralph Hepola received a grant from the John Stites Jazz Awards to support a May performance tour across Illinois and Michigan.”
- Northwestern University School of Music Fanfare, Fall 2024

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“Congratulations on an Official Selection for Paris Lift-Off Film Festival!” “We are excited to invite you to participate in the Paris Lift-Off Film Festival 2024. We can't wait to screen your work in the competition!”

- Paris Lift-Off Film Festival, France; Lift-Off Global Network Paris 2024 Official Selection

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- 2024 Made in New York Jazz Competition, New York City, Our Judges: Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Lenny White; Committee Members: John Lee, Wayne Escoffery, Manuel Valera, Edsel Gomez, Federico Malaman - “Featuring a worldwide audience of jazz fans, as well as a slate of musicians from dozens of countries, the Made In New York Jazz competition made its mark on the Internet as the first-ever online jazz contest. Now, Made In New York is the most popular jazz competition on Google - out of millions results.” Ralph Hepola is the first low brass player to ever advance this far in this esteemed competition.

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- International Tuba Euphonium Association, New London, Connecticut; an international organization dedicated to performers, teachers and friends of the tuba and euphonium

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"Ralph Hepola was awarded the John Stites Jazz Award grant giving the opportunity to share contemporary jazz on the tuba by hitting the road for a Midwest tour!”

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- Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Iowa; published for the population of Dubuque and surrounding areas in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin

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Springfield Daily Citizen  

Grant money in hand, a Springfield jazz tubaist hits the road to grow the genre’s audience 

Renowned jazz tuba player Ralph Hepola, one of three recipients of a John Stites Jazz Award, will be joined by three Springfield musicians on a tour of Illinois and Michigan 

by Jeff Kessinger May 23, 2024  

under photo: Springfield musician Ralph Hepola has been awarded a grant from the John Stites Jazz Awards. He’s using the money to take Ralph Hepola’s Heptones on a tour of the Upper Midwest to help grow the genre’s audience.  

The tuba has taken Ralph Hepola many places, from his native Minnesota to Canada, New York City to Washington, D.C., and Illinois to Switzerland. Now based in Springfield, Hepola is packing up his tuba and hitting the road for an upper-Midwest tour funded by a grant from the John Stites Jazz Awards. 

The Michigan-based organization recently awarded grants to three applicants, all of whom present a “new and innovative approach” to jazz music and will use the grant to help grow the genre’s audience. Hepola is an improvisational jazz tubaist currently focused on contemporary jazz. He’s using his funds to team up with three other Springfield musicians, Ralph Heopla’s Heptones, and travel to smaller communities with limited exposure to live jazz. 

“I’m focusing exclusively on my improvisation of the F tuba. And so that makes me unique,” Hepola said. “I think I’m doing really well and I’m getting better all the time, so I’m excited about it.” 

It’s hard for a musician to pack light and tour when his instrument of choice is the tuba. 

“I’m really grateful for this award. We have private hotel rooms for eight nights and I’m renting a quarter-ton pickup truck with a four-passenger cab and a trailer, and it just all adds up. It adds up incredibly fast.” 

Louis Armstrong made him want to play trumpet. A nun assigned him the tuba 

Hepola’s tuba resume is impressive — especially for a musician who really wanted to play the trumpet. His interest in the instrument was sparked by seeing a jazz icon in person. 

“I actually heard Louis Armstrong play at the old Minneapolis Auditorium,” Hepola said. “(He) played with his group… and I remember us standing really up close to the front of the stage and it was just really exciting to hear him. It was very inspirational. That’s where I got the idea of playing trumpet.” 

Hepola’s parents both loved music and took their children to concerts. They also got Ralph started with piano lessons as a child. 

Then came the opportunity to join a parochial school band program in the Minneapolis area. Hepola, 12 years old at the time, was a late arrival to the band, which was directed by Sister Frances Janelle. He told her about his interest in trumpet, but there were already a lot of trumpets in the band. 

“She was pretty clever,” Hepola said. “She said, ‘I really need a good tuba player. If you take the tuba, once you get good enough I’ll let you switch to the trumpet.’ I think she knew that I wasn’t going to change my mind once I started the tuba, that I was the kind of kid who was just going to get attached to something and really get enthused about it. 

“And I did. I really liked the tuba. I was really excited about it and I never went to the trumpet.” 

Traveling the world, tuba in hands  

Hepola flourished on the tuba, which opened up some incredible opportunities for him. While he was still in high school, he began performing as an extra musician with the Minnesota Orchestra. His time with that group included recordings and tours to Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City. At 17, Hepola was chosen to play before the British Royal Family in the Manitoba All-Province Band at Brandon University, in Manitoba, Canada. 

under photo: Ralph Hepola was born in Minnesota and has traveled extensively to play the tuba. He and his wife moved to Springfield in 2019 in search of milder winters. 

While he was still a teenager, Hepola won a position with the United States Army Band of Washington, D.C., and at age 20 he won a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music in the Young Artists Competition of the Minnesota Orchestra/WAMSO. 

Hepola earned his music degree at Northwestern University. There he studied with Arnold Jacobs, a renowned musician and teacher, and the subject of five books. 

Hepola later won an international audition for the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland’s third-largest city. During five years in Europe, he performed as a soloist on Swiss Radio and played in the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Music Festival in Austria. 

And that’s not all. Hepola also freelanced for two years in New York City with various jazz and classical ensembles. In all, he has played performances of 73 different operas in 98 productions with 15 different musical organizations in the United States and Europe. Hepola can be heard on 51 professional recordings, including the major labels EMI and Warner Bros., as well as 49 video productions. 

Warming up to Springfield and its friendly people 

Hepola and his wife, who is originally from Montana, relocated to Springfield in 2019. What drew this world-traveling tubaist to the Queen City of the Ozarks? 

“Winters were really getting to us,” Hepola said. “My wife wanted to try a warmer place. I think maybe she was thinking more Sun Belt, because she isn’t real crazy about the Springfield winters, either. But it is warmer here. Spring comes about a month earlier, fall comes about a month later. We had mutual friends who had moved here and we came and tried it. We’re liking it so far.” 

Hepola has ingrained himself in the Springfield performing arts scene, playing at events like First Friday Art Walk, Cider Days and Artsfest. He said he appreciates the opportunities he’s been given. 

“(I) appreciate the friendly people of Springfield. My wife and I continually say they’re not as cold as the Scandinavian Minnesotans and they’re not as brusque as the people on the East Coast, so we’re enjoying the people here.” 

He’s assembled a band of veteran Springfield musicians 

under photo: Ralph Hepola’s Heptones are promoting several Upper Midwest jazz festivals during their “Take in a Jazz Festival this Summer!” tour. The band is made up of Springfield musicians (from left) John Strickler, Ralph Hepola, Daniel Pasquale and Seth Darby.  

Some of those friendly Springfield people will join him on the “Take in a Jazz Festival this Summer!” tour. His band includes veteran guitarist John Strickler, a name Hepola said southwest Missouri music fans will recognize. Strickler was born in Kansas City, but moved to Springfield as a child. 

“He’s played with many different groups, like rock bands, in the past and now he mainly plays jazz,” Hepola said. “He has a solo thing that he does playing jazz guitar. He’s very, very talented. I mean, I think he’s a national or world-class talent. He could probably move to New York City and launch a career, but he doesn’t seem to be interested in doing that. He’s happy in Springfield.” 

On bass is Seth Darby, another familiar local name. Darby, who also plays guitar and writes music, recently moved to Nashville, Tennessee. On drums is Daniel Pasquale, who Hepola calls a “talented young drummer.” 

“He went to Missouri State and he’s played with MOJO, which is the Missouri Jazz Orchestra, for 10 years now,” Hepola said. “He’s been a professional musician for 20 years.” 

The band’s lineup will be accessible for all audiences 

The “Take in a Jazz Festival this Summer!” launched May 23 with a show in Carbondale, Illinois. From there it’s on to Galena and Streator, before the band plays in Newaygo and Milford, Michigan, May 26-27. Ralph Hepola’s Heptones wrap up the tour May 29 in Urbana, Illinois. 

“They’re very nice communities,” Hepola said. “I researched them and they’re each unique and have something to offer, but they don’t have a lot of live jazz.” 

The setlist will be a little different than the improvisational jazz Hepola likes to play, but that’s all part of growing the audience. 

“There is far-out, atonal, dissonant jazz that they might not like, but we’re going to play a lot of swing music,” he said. “We’re going to play a lot of standard songs that they’ve maybe heard before, like ‘All of Me’ or ‘Summertime,’ songs like that. We want to get people excited about jazz and wanting to go to a jazz festival and maybe start listening to it.” 

The band will publicize ten major Upper Midwest jazz festivals at their shows, including the Twin Cities Jazz Festival in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

“Hopefully we’re getting people interested in jazz,” Hepola said. “(Hopefully) people will think, ‘Hey, maybe as part of our summer vacation we should take in a jazz festival.’” 

Jeff Kessinger 

Jeff Kessinger is the Reader Engagement Editor for the Springfield Daily Citizen, and the voice of its daily newsletter SGF A.M. He covered sports in southwest Missouri for the better part of 20 years, from young athletes to the pros. The Springfield native and Missouri State University alumnus is thrilled to be doing journalism in the Queen City, helping connect the community with important information. He and wife Jamie daily try to keep a tent on the circus that is a blended family of five kids and three cats. More by Jeff Kessinger 

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- Galena Center for the Arts - Galena, Illinois, the home of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18^th president of the United States, is a tourist destination known for its history, architecture, and resorts.

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Galena Center for the Arts in Illinois - strives to elevate and celebrate regional arts and artists by offering high-quality art in an atmosphere and presentation found in leading art institutes and theaters

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– Jeff Kessinger, Reader Engagement Editor, writing in SGF A.M., newsletter of the Springfield Daily Citizen, Missouri

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- Artspace 304, Carbondale, Illinois - funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Illinois Arts Council

by Gamble Marketing Group, posted August 1, 2024

“Since its founding in 1987 as Carbondale Community Arts, Artspace 304 has nurtured generations of artists and creators. Located in the center of downtown Carbondale, our aim is to platform creative talent throughout the region. We exist as a cultural space for all of Southern Illinois and reflect the vibrancy of our many communities.”

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